TWO WATER RATE HIKES APPROVED, Jack Swanson, Sun Staff

Minutes before they went to go before the television cameras and the people Wednesday night, Bremerton City Council members decided to yank proposed new stormwater rules and rates from its wastewater ordinance and cancel a previously announce public hearing on the issue.

The move, never explained fully during a brief study session before an executive sessions and the regular council session, left one member furious and several members of the audience surprised.

The council went ahead with passage of the water and wastewater portions of the ordinance. The rate schedule that did pass increases city water rates by 8 percent and sewer rates by 4 percent.

The water rate increase is the first in eight years. Sewer rates were increased four years ago.

Councilman Russ Johnson chastised his fellow council members for dragging their feet on the whole water-wastewater-stormwater issue.

The revised ordinance has been before the council since last spring and the council held an evening-long study session on it just last week.

Bill Duffy, public utilities manager, said the new fees will increase the average homeowner's bill by about $1.25 per month. Utility officials said the earliest residents will see the new rates reflected in their water bills will be July or August.

The rate increase is needed to keep up with inflation and will not add new funds to city coffers, Duffy said.

No date has been set to reconsider the stormwater regulations, which for the first time set fees for homeowners and public and commercial building and parking lot owners for stormwater that drains into city sewers.

The city is spending millions annually treating stormwater runoff because it has not way to separate it from household sewage. During large storms, the volume of stormwater causes transfer pumps to fail an both stormwater and raw sewage are dumped into Puget Sound, a problem shared with several other cities on the Sound.

The state has been after the city for five years to fix that problem.

The draft rate schedule prepared by the utilities department shows the city might collect just under $450,000 per year from homeowners, commercial property owners, schools and other owners of paved areas subject to stormwater runoff that ends up in the sewer system.

Individual homeowners would p;ay $2 per month, bringing in $209,760 citywide annually, under the proposed ordinance.

Bremerton schools would be assessed $2,884 bimonthly or $17,304 per year. The district is expected to ask for a significant reduction of that amount.

Even the city would have to pay a stormwater assessment for local streets and arterials, according to the proposed schedule. Those fees would amount to nearly $70,000 per year.

Bremerton is behind at least eight other Puget Sound cities in establishing a fee schedule for storm water. Seattle charges single-family residents $2.64 per month. Poulsbo and Port Townsend charge $5 per month. The lowest is Tacoma with a fee of $1.65, according to city officials.

Of the 10 cities on the list, Bremerton's fee would be second lowest; commercial rates in Seattle and Tacoma would be less.

Discussing the proposed new stormwater ordinance last week, Duffy said money raised by the fees would be put in a special fund and would be sued to build stormwater separation facilities or to increase the city's wastewater treatment capacity. Those decisions, however, must be made by the council.

Under present city ordinances, city sewer users must pay all of the cost of stormwater and wastewater treatment. The owner of a large parking lot, for instance, that collects and channels thousands of gallons of water into the same facilities that treat household waste pays nothing, Duffy pointed out.

Under the proposed fee schedule for stormwater, the owner of the Payless store in Downtown Bremerton would pay $620 bimonthly for stormwater treatment. Owners of the Perry Avenue Mall would pay $600 every two months.

City officials told council members the revised stormwater portions of the new ordinance could be ready for a first reading next week. But that also is the date for a second hearing on the proposed land swap for Roosevelt Field and it is unlikely the council will try to hold public hearings on both matters at that time.

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